South Dakota Nest Predator Bounty Program

I was on Facebook when I saw a post on the nest predator bounty program in SD. I thought it seemed like something that we should have in Wisconsin. I wrote up an email and sent it to someone in my county who is helping me write a resolution to bring it in front of a DNR board in April. To write this resolution I need to do research and see if there are any other states that have programs like this in any way (especially in the midwest). So far I haven't found anything but between work and high school, I don't quite have the time to read all 50 states trapping and hunting rules and regs. I was wondering if anyone would know of any programs like this, or people from South Dakota if you have experience with it and think it's something that would be implemented in other places? Or if anyone would have any advice?
Thank you

https://gfp.sd.gov/bounty-program/

SD and Utah are the only states I'm aware of that had a state bounty program. There's some county level programs on other states.

Just a couple thoughts Alicia.

Oftentimes people have a kneejerk reaction against the term "bounty". We found in Alaska that you generate less resistance by using the term "incentive" or something similar that sounds positive.

You may discover that your state is prohibited from participating in any type of 'bounty' program. We got around that by having private groups put up funding for "incentive" programs.

In our case it concerned wolves but in your area it could be on coons or anything else that is taking a toll on nesting game birds. Just be able to back up your proposal with empirical data. Be sure there is a problem before proposing a solution

We have had this bounty on for several years now it’s a great way to get kids into trapping. SD GFP gave away a bunch of nice cages the first year for free, our conservation clubs also hand out cages often. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about the programs but I’ll tell you what I see happening in my area.

I worked evenings for the GFP as a Park Ranger/Warden on Fri, Sat and Sun nights mostly often getting home after midnight on the weekends. One park was a 90 minute drive home during prime predator movement times, did I see some yes but not what I expected to come across. I’ve also noticed a increase in the nesting bird broods this summer in fact I’ve seen more turkey then deer in those days. Pheasant numbers seemed up with mixed aged chicks running together often, we had good mornings with dew that helped them also early on.

One thing to consider is how accessible your critters will be you can have a program sure but if you can’t get on places to trap then it won’t have much of a impact were here in SD it’s weaved into the culture. I’d look into a signup list if that’s the case in your area to see if it’s even practical to try a program.

Good stuff!

So far it has been good, thing that sucks around me is that the colonies just got and cut the tails off the road killed coon, and turn them in for the money. I paid off quite a bit of traps from it in recent years but I have never gotten 59 tails but maybe this year. It would be great to implement other places especially if there are kids trapping.

I tell my 4H trapping kids to buy a smaller freezer with the tail income first to make it easier to preserve their catch.

Call it the "Nesting Bird Conservation Program" that would make it seem less barbaric.

the program is a fart in a hurricane...... it does get s few people into trapping which i applaud.... but the key to phesant pop is habitat.... need fence rows rock piles ect this country looks pretty bare in february when the fields are picked glean.. long gone are the shelterbelts !!!

Habitat management - things like shelter belts - can cost a lot of money, take a long time to be effective, and you need land to do it. $150 can set you up with a few traps, and if you dont have land - can probably get permission to trap.

We found an old one that works on marketplace for free and haven't had issues with it for the 1 year we have had it. It's a good idea though to buy that first but my mentor that I went to for the Ethics program was only 10-15 miles away so I would just go see him every few days with the fur I caught.

Its a political program more than anything else. Its a way for Gov Kristi to give the antis the double bird in their faces. The 59 tail limit is so they don't have to send out a 1099 fed tax form to people (threshold $600) when they started the program (if they were doing $10 a tail). I've turned in tails a couple of years although not a fan of warm temp trapping. I'll never reach 59 tails until maybe when I retire.

TheYouthTrapper, the Hutterites also have an advantage by rotating family addresses within the colony. I'm sure the state agency people know the Hutes are playing games but it is what it is. I do like making $10 off of a grinner now and then

Doesn’t Idaho have an incentive/reimbursement program if you kill a wolf?

Bingo. Politics. I cant imagine how much crep or walk-in that could have paid for that coulve given places to hunt for everyone and boosted numbers. Meanwhile, we paid millions to farm kids who protected their dads sweet corn patch and silage piles along with who knows how many road kills.

I believe Delta Waterfowl has published some good data regarding predator trapping in the Prairie Pothole region as it relates to duck nesting success.

All I see is the hatch is up and predators are down from driving the roads at night for work so how it came about I careless I’m just glad it went in that direction I hope it keeps up.

Yep but not by the state of ID.

A guy was offering $50 a beaver but it’s so far away it’s not worth it to go down that far, I told him I’d teach his kid how to trap them it would be easier.

Besides shrinking and disappearing habitat (mostly private) some of the remaining stuff is poorly managed if managed at all (state owned land).

AliciaK is your idea is to help what game birds?

If you can get the money from private donations then I don't care, from state (DNR) funds I'd be against it.

That's the other part of it where they just have so many people but I can guarantee that not a single one has enough traps to get as many tails as they do.

Yes, you can imagine if you get your calculator out. Let's say the going price to rent CREP planted grasslands is $200 an acre. Take the 550k that is typically spend on the bounty tail program and divide that by $200. That is 2,750 additional acres of pheasant and deer habitat the state could rent for the year. Much of that would be obviously concentrated in counties that have a lot of CREP or just plain CRP because parcels enrolled in those programs are not uniformly spread across the state. Its a good gig if such rental would open a parcel or two where you live, otherwise its just some piece of "public" land that is an x number of miles away.

More public is more public. Benefits everyone. So yes, id rather have more public ground, no matter where it is, than paying people to pick up roadkill raccoon. Until they figure out how to only pay for animals taken on or near public ground, i think its a load of crap to pay people to take coon off of private ground they get paid to hunt by a group from Across the country.

I think Alberta might have something like it. I don't know if it is at the Providence level but a friend from there spoke of something like it.

I think the first step is going to be to get the WI DNR to let trapping and coon hunting season stay open till the day before Turkey season

finding funding is likely to be much harder than a simple date change in the rule book that would benefit turkey populations

then you sell the idea to turkey hunters and other bird hunters and get them interested in cage traps and learning about DP's as land owners they can run DP's in WI if not they need trappers Ed which is a god place to get them in touch with other new trappers to help them catch.


as for pay out for tails , private funding from turkey groups and pheasant groups might come easier both are into habitat projects and that is what this would be


just getting the season extended into spring would be the first move in my opinion

if you get a resolution written to extend the season the next step is get someone in every county to present it at the Conservation congress meeting once it is on the ballot then it can get a vote pushing it along

probably looking at a 2-3 year process just to get them to change the season dates.

The key to pheasant (and other game bird) populations is nesting success rate. Habitat quality is an important contributing factor in nesting success, because it makes nests less vulnerable to predation. So it is logical that predator density is also an important contributing factor in nesting success. Management programs can be more effective by addressing multiple contributing factors.

Bounties never work.

They should make people bring in a finished coon, so that way it takes a little more work and then people can't just pick up roadkill. Not much you can do about people taking them off of private ground though.

Georgia doesn’t have bounties, but our DNR just opened possum and coon up to hunting/trapping year round on private ground. That’s a big win for our ground nesters, plus it gives us part time trappers to make some money.

Few young trappers will put up fur if that was the case the majority of young trapper would be out of it. Being a 4H instructor for the last couple years I see little interest in fur handling.

Yeah, I guess that wouldn't help much on the young trapper side of things. I wish I had the space to do fur handling but it just doesn't work out and I'm really interested in it. I have 2 guys who are willing to teach me everything they know.

.........as declared by management agencies that compete directly for any funding that might go to bounty programs.

Your seeking knowledge most working the bounty are lured by the dollars but may gain interest while doing so is the hope.